Social Distancing During the Black Death
The Black Death wiped out half the population of Europe in the space of four years.
James Hankins
· 5 min read
The Case for Economic Hibernation during the COVID-19 Lockdowns
We are currently in the throes of a new kind of crisis where the underlying economy is healthy, but a non-economic crisis is stopping it in its tracks.
Einat Wilf and Saar Wilf
· 6 min read
Symptoms of Loneliness
When you care for others, when you don’t live alone—and most people don’t—the equation changes radically.
Stephen Elliott
· 6 min read
COVID-19 Science Update for March 28th: Bergamo's Decimation, More SSEs, and the Case for Masks
On an annualized basis, the last three weeks in Lombardy correspond to a regional per-capita death rate of 0.72 percent—or, put another way, the death of one person out of every 140 residents.
Jonathan Kay
· 6 min read
COVID-19 Science Update for March 27th: Super-Spreaders and the Need for New Prediction Models
Absent isolation or other precautionary measures, the average socially active COVID-19 infectee will transmit the disease to an average of about 2.4 people. i.e., the R0 value is 2.4. But super-spreaders can spread a disease to dozens or hundreds.
Jonathan Kay
· 11 min read
PODCAST 83: Professor Wilfred Reilly on his new book Taboo: 10 Facts You Can't Talk About
Kentucky State political science professor Wilfred Reilly talks to Toby Young about his new book Taboo: 10 Facts You Can’t Talk About. Professor Reilly’s last piece for Quillette was about the 1776 project.
Quillette, Wilfred Reilly, Toby Young
· 1 min read
Social Distancing and Stay-Home Orders Are Likely To Save Millions
It was only after coronavirus proved so much more deadly in China and Italy that governments outside of Asia took dramatic actions including radical social distancing and stay-at-home orders.
Michael Shellenberger
· 3 min read
COVID-19 Science Update for March 26th: Five Trends Shaping Medium-Term Policy
Even if a COVID-19 vaccine were invented tomorrow (it won’t be), our experience with the virus shows how underprepared we are for this kind of public-health emergency.
Jonathan Kay
· 10 min read
Will COVID-19 Mark the End of European Liberalism?
According to the social science literature, there appears to be a positive correlation between the prevalence of disease and an increase in authoritarian-nationalist political views.
Jamie Martin
· 9 min read
COVID-19 Science Update for March 25th: Understanding Models
This clustering phenomenon explains why the COVID-19 policy debate among politicians, doctors, and pundits now has become somewhat surreal, with world-class experts telling us either that we are facing an “apocalypse,” or that the pandemic will fizzle and we’re all “going to be fine.”
Jonathan Kay
· 12 min read
The Coming Age of Dispersion
New digital connections could incubate a new urban culture unlike any we have seen.
Joel Kotkin
· 11 min read
No, COVID-19 Is Not a 'Disaster for Feminism'
It often seems like it’s mostly feminists who disparage female work and praise so highly the world of corporate and professional success.
Marilyn Simon
· 6 min read
Sanders' Indifferent City on a Hill
Brian Stewart
· 7 min read
COVID-19 Science Update for March 24th: Counting Cases and Deaths
The analysis here is complicated, because a massive testing regime doesn’t seem to be a necessary component of COVID-19 suppression.
Jonathan Kay
· 8 min read
Humanity's Greatest Foe: Pandemics Through the Ages
The blind struggle against infectious diseases began to end when the microscope allowed for the discovery of the bacilli responsible for anthrax, tuberculosis, and cholera in the late 19th century.
Adam Rowe
· 12 min read